a soft life

i read on an economist's blog that an academic's life is a soft life.

tons of flexibility. lots of fun. you don't have to see your boss every single day. and, on average, you have fewer meetings in your life than if one were to be in the corporate world.

i'm still in my office. it's past 8 pm. looming deadline to blame. but i don't work late every day, even though i think about my work every waking minute. i worry about it. i form to-do lists even when i'm getting ready for bed. the worst aspect of the job, in my opinion, is having lots of people judging your work. and it helps to develop a thick skin. but i was born with a thin skin and i don't think it grows thicker with age. nor with rejections.

but at the end of the day, it's the flexibility that counts. a virtue of the soft life that i hadn't appreciated this much until i have kids. that i'm so darn afraid to lose it. that i can't bear the thought of going back to the corporate world to ch-ch-chug along.

so, yes. if i'm that "pampered", then it's a soft life. the sort that allows me to at least be a "present-minded" mom, a mom that could be there for excursions, {potential} baseball practices, mommy-and-me gymboree time. and sometimes, a mommy-and-me-and-a-ben-and-jerry's-ice-cream-in-the-afternoon-time .